Sharing Wealth

I just made an exciting discovery! I looked at my blog's stats for the first time and saw that my blog is quite popular! I had NO idea! 37,335 views and counting! 41 views just today! Wow! Thank you everyone! :D
So what brought me here today was that I have been thinking. ...

1.  I need to make money.  Don't we all, right?  I don't want to make money the old fashioned way- by selling something no one wants or needs. -A plastic trinket,... a pyramid scheme,... a gadget that will break next week, ... blech! We all get enough of that! I want to provide something of real value and benefit to the person that chooses to invest in me.
2. I want to do something I LOVE to do. That was the thought that brought me to my blog today. I was talking about this very subject and I said, "you know, I really love writing articles for my blog."
So when I logged in to Blogger's home page, they had the stats displayed... almost like it was Fate trying to tell me something. One should always listen when Fate speaks, so... I'm listening!
I feel as if I have been sitting on a golden egg for all this time and that egg is about to hatch.
Now I can think of a dozen ways to provide things of value for you my readers. But I would love to hear your input too. So far I am thinking of more book suggestions on gardening and sustainability,  referrals to suppliers or products that I recommend. (Such as Provent-a-Mite spray for reptile mites!)
It has been suggested that I make my blog available by subscription, but I am not sure I want to do that. I like the free knowledge that I share here and I really want to keep it that way.
If I can use this blog to make money, then I can spend a whole lot more time devoted to articles on herbs, wildlife, sustainability ideas, pets, homesteading, oh I am so excited! :D  This is truly what I love to do! Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. What do YOU want me to write about?
I will be putting a lot of thought into this new concept! Thank you everyone for giving me this great gift!

Shifting Sand

So Qwatra moves to the Desert?!     
My life has completely changed.  Events took me from my 

beautiful Northwest home into the DESERT of all places!  How am I supposed to garden here?!  *holds up handful of sand* Anything and everything grows in the Northwest and I miss my garden dearly!! Life is full of challenges, and I guess this is one of those trials I am supposed to overcome.  My challenge is to grow food from rock and sand and with minimal water.  Fun.  Everything here in the desert is about water.  Well, not for the city of Las Vegas it seems. They love to flaunt water like gold.  At what point will they realize that there is a drought I wonder?
Despite water issues, the desert thrives!  We have so many flowers, lots of birds, bright butterflies, flitting bats at night, chattering hummingbirds curiously hovering over our heads as we sit in the backyard. With just a little bit of water, the desert comes alive with such abundance! If there is one thing that the desert teaches, it is a deep appreciation for miracle of life! I am amazed by the beauty I see all around me! I hope to return to a milder climate someday, but in the meantime, gardening here will be an adventure, and I am up to the test!

Mille Fleur D'Uccles

My new favorite thing in the whole world is my flock of Mille Fleur D'Uccles (pronounced DEW-Clays). Ok, maybe not the whole world, but definitely my backyard! So after going through regular size chickens (too loud even though I only had hens), ducks (too messy, smelly and still loud), and quail (too stupid and way too loud surprisingly) , I am full circle back to chickens. These pint-size chickens are the perfect urban egg producer! Even the rooster, as far as roosters go, is not all that noisy. He crows every now and then and has his morning fit of course, but even at his loudest he is drowned out by any one of the neighborhood dogs.
Milles are clean and don't smell much compared to their larger cousins. They don't eat as much, don't take up as much room, and they are BEAUTIFUL! I love the endless variety of the feather patterns. They are so cute and pickupable! Even the rooster is pretty tame, docile, and holdable.
From 7 hens I am getting 5 eggs every two days. Two are still a bit young I think and will start laying pretty soon. But right now I get one egg one day, and 4 eggs the next day. I love 4 egg days! ;) The eggs are small, about the size of any small chicken egg. So I use about 2 to 1 ratio for recipes.
Since we have a number of hawks and owls in the neighborhood, I am afraid to let them out of their pen to roam the yard. We have had a large hawk (Harrier) attack the pen while my hubby was standing about 8 feet away! The rooster flipped out, but the hawk seemed unimpressed. I do hope maybe with the help of my dog Dori, maybe we can start letting them out to forage. Luckily, since they are small, the pen is very roomy and spacious and they seem to like their living arrangements. They are such a calming tranquil joy to watch as they cluck and peck around their pen.

Letter to God

This is an email forward I got today. It was such a cute story I just have to share it here :)
....................

Letter to God:

We don't know who replied……, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.
I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away.
Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.
Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I'm easy to find. I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

Baby Quail!

My first quail hatch is over. Aren't they cuuute!! I have 24 healthy babies that hatched fine on their own, three died while hatching during the night, I assisted 5 out of their eggs, but 2 of those didn't make it, so I had 27, but three babies drowned in the chick waterer in scarcely a quarter inch of water. After thinking for a minute I put marbles in the water- no more drowned babies. I'm back to 24. Of the other 21 eggs that didn't hatch,... I'm thinking maybe quail eggs don't keep as well as chicken eggs if you wait to start incubation? Or maybe they were not held at their ideal temperature while waiting? ..., live and learn. I think I'll start a new batch, but I'll add eggs to the incubator daily as they are laid. I'll have 7 babies a day at the end, but I can keep them in a couple of groups if the bigger ones start picking at the smaller ones. After a couple weeks they'll be close enough to the same size and I can introduce them to the bigger pen all at once.

subscription feeder update

Hi all :)
If you have a current subscription to our email updates (as of 6pm Wed), please take a moment to re-subscribe to our new email sign up box (same as before). I know it doesn't look any different, but it redirects info back to me from a different account now.
Thanks :) ... sorry for any inconvenience :(

Delilah :)

A New Year

It has been such a lovely winter. :) I have so enjoyed the snow. As usual, much has happened and now I'll be writing about it all at once.
Loki found a new home with some experienced snake owners who I know will take good care of her. But I miss her so much! :( She was the perfect size. Big enough to really feel weighty, but small enough to manage- not too heavy to lift, not to big to house, and not to expensive to feed, and most of all, not to big to be dangerous - except for maybe a bite on the nose! ouch! (I'd hate to be that guy!)
I can't wait to have dwarf Burmese and super-dwarf reticulated pythons. Both of these normally giant snakes only top out around 7 to 8 feet in the dwarfs. (about the size Loki was) If this year's breeding season goes well, I can expand into the larger room in the basement and have a couple of these bigger snakes. I'm looking at granite Burmese, but there are so many pretty retic varieties... I can't make up my mind where I want to start!
Also I want to get into carpet pythons. Yesterday I brought home Toby- a male (unconfirmed as of yet) coastal carpet. I don't know anything about him unfortunately. He's just a pet shop boy. But he is a super sweet snake and I just love him! Here's a picture of him asleep in his new house.

Here's a blurb I wrote about his trip home from the pet shop:
Toby had a pretty stressful trip home. He HATED the pillowcase. I've never seen that before. Usual...ly snakes LOVE pillowcases. But then again I've never seen a claustrophobic cat before and yet our cat, Turbo, freaks out if you put him in a cat carrier. His eyes dilate and he howls and starts panting and clawing at the door. That's kinda what Toby did. I thought he was in pain or something like his tail was bent maybe, so I opened the bag to see if he was ok. He stuck his head out and crawled up my neck and then he was fine. So his bottom half was in the pillowcase and his top half was around my neck like a scarf. We thought about just letting him ride home like that but I was afraid if the car noise (vibration) frightened him I'd stress him out even more trying to keep him still. So back into the bag he went. He was not a happy camper. He kept pushing at the bag all the way home. Then it was to the bath tub. Not only was he dirty, but he was dry as a bone getting ready to shed. I thought a nice warm bath would be a comfort, but no, he hated that too. :(
So he just got a quick warm dip, a quick run through the towel and another scan for mites, and then he went down to his new home which thank goodness he seems to adore! He crawled all over his tree branch and started rubbing his nose on everything. I expect I'll find a shed in the morning.

Here's a couple new pictures of Amina. She's friendly, curious, and growing like a weed. She gets into everything. Here she is helping Nef with her makeup.





And here she is climbing the fig tree and looking out the window at the snow.